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 from the mouth of the Duchess of Marlborough, who reproached him with her gift of 20,000l. The king gave conspicuous proof of his reviving confidence by sanctioning an exchange of offices between Chesterfield and William Stanhope, first earl of Harrington [q. v.], who was vacating the post of secretary of state for the northern department. While lamenting the transference from an easy to a laborious employment, Chesterfield resigned the lord-lieutenancy of Ireland to Harrington, and entered on the duties of secretary of state on 29 Oct. 1746.

The good terms which had hitherto subsisted between Chesterfield and the Duke of Newcastle did not long survive his acceptance of the new office. The duke was almost as jealous as Walpole of brilliant colleagues, and a difference of opinion during 1747 on foreign policy led to a breach between Chesterfield and himself. Chesterfield was anxious to bring the continental war to a close, but his efforts were frustrated by the duke's secret correspondence in an opposite sense with Lord Sandwich, plenipotentiary at The Hague. Reports of Chesterfield's retirement were soon abroad. On 26 Jan. 1748 he wrote to his friend Solomon Dayrolles [q. v.], 'I can no longer continue in a post in which it is well known that I am but a commis, and in which I have not been able to do any one service to any one man, though ever so meritorious, lest I should be supposed to have any power, and my colleague not the whole.' He meant, he added, 'no sullen retirement from the world, but would indulge his ease and preserve his character.' His colleagues entreated him to hold on (cf. Bedford Correspondence, 1846, i. 206; Marchmont Papers, i. 262). But, ignoring their appeals, he resigned the seals in February 1748. The king parted with him reluctantly. A dukedom was offered him and was declined, but on his own initiative George II made his brother John a commissioner of the admiralty. His views of the policy of the government were set forth with some asperity in 'An Apology for a late Resignation, in a Letter from an English Gentleman to his Friend at The Hague.' The pamphlet reached a fourth edition before the end of the year (1748). According to Walpole, the tract was by Lord Marchmont writing in concert with Chesterfield. Chesterfield protested to Dayrolles, then at The Hague, that he could not so much as guess at the author; but his ignorance was perhaps assumed to anticipate inspection of the letter at the post office. There is little doubt that it was written under his inspiration. A war of pamphlets followed, in which Chesterfield was severely handled by the partisans of the Pelhams (cf. 'An Answer from a Gentleman at The Hague ... in regard to a late Resignation;' 'The Resignation Discussed;' 'An impartial Review of two Pamphlets lately published: one intituled An Apology for a late Resignation, the other The Resignation Discussed;' and 'An Apologetical Discourse for a late celebrated Apology, shewing the real end and design of that treatise. Written by the real author of the Apology,' all 1748).

With his resignation of the secretaryship of state Chesterfield's official life came to an end. He had done, he said, with 'the hurry and plague of business, either in or out of court.' Thenceforth he rarely appeared in the political arena, and held severely aloof from party strife. But as a serene spectator he maintained a lively interest in politics, and retained much personal influence in political circles. In December 1750, according to Horace Walpole, he was offered the presidency of the council. He declined it on the score of deafness, but early next year he disinterestedly intervened in the business of parliament with marked effect. At the instance of George Parker, second earl of Macclesfield [q. v.],the virtual author of the change, he convinced himself of the need of a reformation of the calendar. Despite an appeal from the Duke of Newcastle not to stir matters that had long been quiet, he brought a bill on the subject into the House of Lords (20 Feb. 1751). He spoke by rote some astronomical jargon of which he admitted he did not understand a word, although he felt proud of its harmonious periods. On 18 March he moved the second reading, and Macclesfield explained its objects. The bill, which passed through both houses without opposition, was received in the country with a roar of disapproval. But the popular hostility was directed chiefly against Macclesfield and his family. George II continued to treat Chesterfield with consideration, and in May 1755 consulted him on the allowance to be made his grandson, Prince George, the heir-apparent. On 10 Dec. 1755 he made his last speech in the House of Lords. In accordance with the views of foreign policy he had long held, he denounced the maintenance of subsidy treaties with Prussia and Hesse-Cassel by which England's interests were, in his opinion, subordinated to those of Hanover. He spoke for nearly an hour; but the effort exhausted him, and as soon as his speech ended he left the house, never to address it again.

During the ministerial crisis of 1757 